The name Tawpley arrived in England after the Norman Conquest of 1066. The Tawpley family lived in Yorkshire. The name is derived from a combination of the Old English personal nameTopp, and the word leah, meaning wood or clearing, and indicates that the original bearer lived near a wood or clearing owned by someone named Topp.

Tawpley Early Origins

The surname Tawpley was first found in Yorkshire where they are conjecturally descended from a junior branch of the Percys. Topcliff or Topclive was granted to a Norman Baron named William Percy who later became the Earl of Northumberland and one of the most senior mighty nobles of the land. At the time of the Conquest, Topcliff consisted of a church and a mill on the side of the banks of the River Swale.

Tawpley Spelling Variations

Tawpley Spelling Variations

Anglo-Norman names tend to be marked by an enormous number of spelling variations. This is largely due to the fact that Old and Middle English lacked any spelling rules when Norman French was introduced in the 11th century. The languages of the English courts at that time were French and Latin. These various languages mixed quite freely in the evolving social milieu. The final element of this mix is that medieval scribes spelled words according to their sounds rather than any definite rules, so a name was often spelled in as many different ways as the number of documents it appeared in. The name was spelled Topley, Topler, Topliffe, Topcliff, Topclive, Toppley, Topleif, Toplief, Toplis and many more.

Tawpley Early History

Tawpley Early History

This web page shows only a small excerpt of our Tawpley research. Another 363 words (26 lines of text) covering the years 1391, 1832, 1834, 1451, 1740 and 1778 are included under the topic Early Tawpley History in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.

Tawpley Early Notables (pre 1700)

Tawpley Early Notables (pre 1700)

Another 25 words (2 lines of text) are included under the topic Early Tawpley Notables in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.

The Great Migration

The Great Migration

Because of the political and religious discontent in England, families began to migrate abroad in enormous numbers. Faced with persecution and starvation at home, the open frontiers and generally less oppressive social environment of the New World seemed tantalizing indeed to many English people. The trip was difficult, and not all made it unscathed, but many of those who did get to Canada and the United States made important contributions to the young nations in which they settled. Some of the first North American settlers with Tawpley name or one of its variants: William Topleife who settled in Barbados in 1635; Henry Topley arrived in Philadelphia in 1866; Thomas Topley arrived in Philadelphia in 1867; J. Topliff settled in Boston Massachusetts in 1822.

Skordas, Guest. Ed. The Early Settlers of Maryland an Index to Names or Immigrants Complied from Records of Land Patents 1633-1680 in the Hall of Records Annapolis, Maryland. Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing, 1968. Print.

Colletta, John P. They Came In Ships. Salt Lake City: Ancestry, 1993. Print.

...

The Tawpley Family Crest was acquired from the Houseofnames.com archives. The Tawpley Family Crest was drawn according to heraldic standards based on published blazons. We generally include the oldest published family crest once associated with each surname.